Black Sigil: The Will To Truth
by T.T. Goldsmith
Summary: On a journey to the corners of the earth, the Forgotten travel a path only known in legend, while battling their inner demons.
1. Bones of the North

1. Bones of the North

As I touched the gemstone, I could feel nothing. It was just a rock. Typical.

The priest looked at me with a wry face, almost scornful.

"Serves you right, the way you are," the priest said, and immediately stepped aside to let me down the stairs. Being accustomed to this, I merely brushed past him, onto the hard stone floor of the shrine, ignoring his piercing and haughty gaze. I felt somewhat ashamed. The Duke had expected that now of age, I would find the source of magic with a single touch. How wrong he was. Something crept inside me then, but I pushed it away, hoping to focus on better things.

Outside, the wind was fresh against my face. Further down the mountainside, I saw an eagle perched on a tree, the blood still on its beak. This is no place for the weak. I remarked to myself how surprised I was that a few arcane words were able to escort these pompous fat priests up to the shrine, and then realized that they hadn't come on their own. They are accompanied by knights when they travel down for supplies. I laughed to myself.

The snow on the ground was reassuring. Not everything was as it seemed: while I was broken, at least I could still feel. Far too often it seems, feeling has left this world. People go on their business thinking their mastery of nature is some kind of gift to them for being so wonderful and high-born, when really they are just as delicate as the snow under one's boots. They are just as natural a part of this world as I am, even though I hold no arcane words traced on the skin of my heart.

The wolves of the snowy mountain were finished resting now. I could sense their eyes on me, but I had not accustomed myself to their patterns yet, and they caught me unaware. After bandaging my wounds from a bite in the left arm, I continued down the mountainside, cursing my inexcusable flight of fancy.

-Kairu


	2. The Guardians

2. The Guardians

I miss my father terribly. Kairu is welcome company in this strange land, but everything is far too odd. The shadows are in the wrong place, the people speak without knowing evil, and there is a disrespect for the beauty of the world.

The wagon is rocking. Soldiers are talking outside. They have tied me up with rope, which I will quickly make them wish they hadn't. They haven't even trained the horses to properly guide a wagon, as if they've taken wild horses and saddled them with steel and war gear. I have attempted to burn through the ropes, finding the strands of heat in the air and weaving them together, but the ropes are too tight and I keep burning myself. My hands are bound, which is making the task difficult. Normally a few gestures and I am able to gather most of the heat around me and use it however I wish. The tight space in the carriage is also causing a bit of a problem, as someone foolishly made the entire vehicle out of wood. These people are truly backward.

"I have caught the witch," he says, that big ugly voice.

His soldiers remain silent. After traveling on the road for sometime, I believe they are embarrassed by him. His comments have mostly trailed down the ludicrous, simple-minded thinking that seems to crown the epitome of this race of people we have encountered. Give a man an axe and he is king.

I hope Kairu is not worried about me. He should know by now I can take care of myself. Though I find myself thinking of him often in my stray thoughts, though I chastise myself. Your silly adventure, Aurora, that's all this is. Father tried to kill Kairu on more than one occasion, and in the past week at that. He is obviously perturbed at something, and nothing I can say is going to sway the Duke, my father. He holds care for his family but greater care for politics. While I wish for his embrace around me, I could not bear to be near him now, after having tried to kill his own son and my only brother. Something darker is at work. But all silly adventures end, Father would say. You must return to normal life.

Normal life. What a joke. Kairu didn't say much in the cave, and I was too frightened. Were he not there, we surely would have died. You are a foolish girl, Aurora, to think you could handle this world. Were it not for the little magic I could sense around me, we would have perished, and Father would cry himself to sleep for the rest of his dark life.

When we were taken to this place, the first greeting we received were from the guardians of this world, who did not seem happy to see us emerge. They wove magic like dancers, flourishing ice and fire through the air until we were both blinded, stunned, and waiting to die. I still don't know how we survived. Since leaving Bel Lenora, we have come so close to the end of our lives; it's like someone's sick joke. The wolves that hunt the countryside of Bel Lenora are nothing as compared to the dangers of even the simplest things in this world: the flowers are the size of my bed and set you on fire, and their worms could eat my dog, and almost bit off my head.

Yes, I suppose I can understand why the man with the axe is king.

* * *

The wagon rumbles and stops. The soldiers are quiet, and even the big man halts his idiotic voice. There is a rustling from trees, and I can hear blades being unsheathed.

"Kill them!" the big man screams out.

There is a scramble of feet; swords and shields clash together, and then wrestling. One man grunts and another gives out a war cry, and then the clashing and singing of swords. Foolish girl, Father says, now! Without thinking, I take all of the strands of heat in the air and surround myself with them. My skin is hot, and I can feel the hair on my arms burning. It hurts bad. And then I open my eyes through the smoke, and step out of the charred ropes. There are tears in my eyes and I am crying from the pain. But there is little time for that, and I take one more strong strand of heat, funnel it into a long blast, and with a boom, the door splinters into a thousand charred pieces of wood. The carriage is on fire, and I tumble out of the wagon.

Kairu.

He rushes forward through the troops unnaturally fast. There is a man with him, the stranger we met in the woods when we emerged from the pit of the cave. He wears green, but moves like lightning. As Kairu moves forward, he throws out his arm and I grab on, weak from using so much magic, and feel my speed accelerate until the woods and the road blurs into one color.

Turning my head, I see the captain take his giant weapons and smash apart his opponents. One crashes into a tree and his lithe form crumples onto the grass, another gets a head full of axe and falls to the ground, bleeding out of his ears. The third I barely see as we move forward, falling under the brunt of the big captain's boot. I don't know who they are, but I already feel sick. Everything in this world is evil. Death and despair rule every corner.

* * *

Inside the cave, we take a breath. It is beautiful inside, but there are spirits of maleficent terror roaming the entire cavern, as if the humans who lived on the outside had formed them inside here, where they fought and bled over each small inch of space.

"Are you safe, my lady?" The one with the gentle face, the man accompanying Kairu was speaking to me. He wears a green cloak that flows around his body, and the hair on his head seems to float around him. When he moves, it was like slowing reality and moving in a different time. He is like pure magic.

"Of course," I tell him. "And you couldn't have come earlier?" I mean to be intimidating; I won't take his gestures to woo me so easily. I am shaking inside, but I cannot show that. Kairu steps behind me; I feel the strength and coolness of his armor against my robe.

"We must move," he says, unemotionally. "They approach the cave."

We sidestep further into the cave. There are pools of water falling from orifices in the walls, moving along little creeks and canals, and disappearing into darkness. Beyond the light from the outside, it looks like the cave moves to the right; it's possible there is an exit a little further beyond.

"Take care, Aurora," Kairu says to me quietly. "Stay close and keep your trust close to you, especially from the stranger. He saved me, but I feel he may not have loyalties."

I don't reply to him. I let out a little laugh, and tug his shoulder teasingly. "Oh come now brother, now that I'm here, what do you have to worry about?"

-Aurora


End file.
